Becoming an
IPTV operator
Benefits of IPTV
Content delivery with IPTV
Convergence of content
Guidance for interactive content
IPTV technology
Is IPTV the future of television?
The IPTV World Forum March 2008
Distributed in The Guardian on behalf
of Lyonsdown Publishing who take sole
responsibility for its contents.

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4

Internet protocol television

Editor:
Bradley Scheffer
brad@lyonsdown.co.uk

Pic:
Exterity

Contents
6
8

What Can IPTV Offer Me?
Jamie Beach, the editor of ipTV News talks about what
IPTV has to offer and interviews three of the big players
The Truth about IPTV
If you were wondering about the difference between
Internet TV and IPTV then Jules Foreman of Global Digital
Broadcast reveals all

10

The New Advertising Metrics of IPTV
Read about the benefits of how Packet Vision deliver
targeted advertising through IPTV

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6

Internet protocol television

What can IPTV offer me?
By Jamie Beach, Editor of ipTV News www.iptv-news.com
Few countries in Europe and further afield have missed the recent emergence of IPTV services, which are
being offered by telecoms companies as an alternative to other pay TV services such as satellite and cable. The
reason for this is fairly simple – revenues from voice services have been declining for a while and subscribers
have been defecting to other operators, leaving traditionally strong telecoms companies more vulnerable.
Cable TV providers, such as Virgin
Media here in the UK, have been seeking to
add voice services to their packaged bundles
of TV and Internet access for a while - and
now telecoms companies are moving in the
opposite direction to offer TV services. As
they offer more services, telecoms operators
hope to count on greater customer loyalty
and higher average revenue per user (ARPU).
In highly developed markets, such as Asia,
this is leading to truly converged services
being offered by cable and IPTV operators,
allowing them to deliver such features as
Caller ID on the TV screen, family member
locater (done via maps on the television
through mobile phone technology) and place
shifting (where a TV program is carried from
the in-home digital video recorder on to a
mobile device such as a phone for watching
on the daily commute). We probably won’t
see these kinds of services in the UK for a
while yet, but they hint at bigger things to
come if the market proves receptive.
IPTV vs. Internet TV
Few Internet-savvy consumers can have
failed to notice the meteoric rise of Internet
TV services such as Joost. These enable
consumers to watch TV on their PC or
laptop, and differ from IPTV services in a
crucial way – they are delivered over the
open Internet, which means it is much harder
to guarantee picture quality. By contrast,
a telecoms firm such as BT has control
over the transmission quality of its network
infrastructure, and can offer its customers
firmer guarantees about the picture quality of
its TV services.
We spoke to BT, Tiscali and Orange to gain
an insight into their IPTV services (BT Vision
and Tiscali TV have been available in the UK
for a while now, and Orange plans to launch
their service later this year), and ask how they
plan to expand these services in the future.

including Setanta Sports, plus a large library
of on-demand programmes and films, as
well as time-shift capabilities through the free
Digital Video Recorder (DVR) included with
the service. High definition content will be
offered later this year.
ipTV News: Why did BT decide
to launch a TV service?
BT had been working on the service for
a considerable time before its nationwide
launch in May last year. We were seeing
increasing convergence of the TV and
telecoms industries, around the world, with
pay TV operators in the UK such as Sky
moving into the telecoms arena. Offering our
customers a digital television service was a
natural step for us to take.
What are the key features of
BT Vision for consumers?
It’s a great way to get the best of digital TV,
and a digital recorder is also included in every
box, allowing consumers to store 80 hours of
content recorded from the Freeview platform
at the touch of a button. The BT Vision
Box connects to a BT broadband line and
also allows customers to access over 7,000
programmes on-demand, with full DVDlike functionality of rewind, pause and fast
forward. Within this library there is a fantastic
range of the most recent and classic movies,
music and TV programmes, as well as extra

How do you plan to expand
the service in the future?
It’s easy to get over excited with the
possibilities offered by IPTV. We want to
get the basics right first – which means our
aim is to offer a first class customer service,
make the service simple and pleasurable
to use and offer increasingly compelling
content and services, at great value. We
also seek to offer our customers a service
which is genuinely different and innovative
– as shown by the recently announced deal
with Microsoft that BT Vision will be made
available on the Xbox 360. When coupled
with the BT Vision Box, Xbox 360 users will
also have access to multi-room functionality
[where content stored in one room on the BT
Vision V-Box can be viewed on a TV via an
Xbox 360 in another room]. We are looking
at offering a fully integrated home media
experience – meaning our customers can
access their media content and services
wherever and whenever they want across all
devices, and Caller ID on the TV screen is on
our roadmap.

“TV that you want,
when you want it” – Tim
Pearson, Director of
Digital TV for Orange UK

“A great way to get
digital TV” – Marc Watson,
Commercial Director of
BT Vision
BT Vision was launched in May last year
and has gone on to record considerable
subscriber growth in a short period of time,
with over 150,000 installed customers
using the service according to latest figures.
The service offers the Freeview channels,

interactive features such as games. The
service also offers flexibility in how customers
pay for content – there are no minimum fee
contracts for content packages, if they wish
customers can just choose to pay for the
odd Saturday night movie for example, as it
suits them. And the box itself is free to BT
Broadband customers. Customers love the
on demand service – we recorded over a
million on demand views in December alone.

Marc Watson, BT Vision

Orange has already launched its IPTV service
in other European countries such as France
and Spain, and is preparing to enter the UK
market this year. France Telecom, which
owns Orange, recently announced that it
now has over 1.243mn customers for its
Orange TV service in Europe.

Internet protocol television

customers and we are planning a full UK
rollout of the service later this year.

“Breadth of choice” –

Jonathon Sykes, Managing
Director of Content
Strategy for Tiscali TV
Tiscali TV offers up to 80 broadcast
channels, including Freeview and
subscription channels such as Sky One, Sky
Movies and Sky Sports, as well as a large
library of on-demand content. The service
recently achieved nationwide availability,
with over 10mn households now capable of
receiving Tiscali TV.

Tim Pearson, Orange UK
ipTV News: What will make
IPTV an appealing service for
consumers in the UK?
The UK television landscape is developing as
Digital Switchover approaches. Consumers
are becoming more sophisticated and
as a result, there is increased consumer
awareness and uptake of multi-channel
TV, digital TV recorders, IPTV and video on
demand (VoD). Digital TV from Orange will
allow customers to get all the flexibility and
control of the Internet on their living room
TV: “TV that you want when you want it”, an
appealing proposition for our customers.
What can consumers expect
from Orange’s new IPTV
service?
Digital TV from Orange will provide a wide
and compelling range of content and
channels, from free-to-air channels (including
BBC digital channels, Film 4, More 4 etc), as
well as dedicated video on demand film and
TV libraries.
In July 2007, Orange announced a multiyear video on demand deal with Disney-ABC
International, and in December of last year
we also announced a multiyear agreement
with MGM to provide the studio’s latest
feature film releases and classic movies from
the MGM library to Orange’s customers, and
we continue to negotiate content in the UK
as well as via the France Telecom Group
content division.
With a strong heritage in entertainment
and content delivery and partnerships
with BAFTA, Glastonbury and recently the
Rugby World Cup – sponsorships that
have their own unique content that can be
merchandised for Orange customers across
a number of platforms - Digital TV from
Orange will deliver a compelling proposition
to UK consumers.
When will it be available?
Digital TV from Orange is currently being
trialled by existing paying broadband

ipTV News: When was Tiscali TV
launched?
Tiscali TV started off as an IPTV video on
demand business in the London area under
the guise of Homechoice. It was a very
cutting edge service for its time, and the
business was purchased last year by Tiscali.
The main point is that it offers a seamless
integration of broadcast television and video
on demand, with the objective of offering
customers what they want to watch, when
they want.
What are the advantages of
IPTV for consumers compared
to other pay TV platforms
such as cable?
Well if you take the movie genre for example,
for film fans we can offer Sky Movies, plus
our PictureBox service, which offers a choice
of new movies on-demand, and more are
being added all the time. We aim to offer
customers a new release as soon as it enters
the pay per view window, and currently have
over 1,000 movies on-demand. So the
strength of IPTV is that it offers breadth of

Jonathon Sykes, tiscali TV

7

choice – you can get a lot more of what you
want, when you want, with IPTV.
For music fans you can choose your own
music videos and create your own playlist, or
even your own TV channel, which is a very
powerful thing to do with music. Also we can
use viewer choices to inform of what other
people are watching, suggesting new music
that they perhaps might not have heard of yet.
We also have a children’s TV channel
called Scamp, which has no adverts and
uses a video-based electronic programme
guide (EPG) to allow children to change
between Postman Pat episodes, for example,
by themselves in an easy and fun-to-use
format. Watch this space as we’re going to
be producing a lot more video EPGs.
How do you plan to expand
the service in the future?
We’re launching new services all the time for
Tiscali TV, and work is never ending on the
functionality side - the important thing is that
we look at what consumers want.
How do you see the UK’s IPTV
market developing compared
to the rest of Europe?
You have to remember that the UK is a very
different market to other European countries:
we have two broadcasting colossuses here,
the BBC and Sky, both of which are fairly
excellent at what they do. Every other TV
provider is seeking to establish and sustain
themselves in an ever-changing landscape.
There is a buoyant and exciting market in
the UK however, and as long as we [Tiscali
TV] maintain to be innovative and consumercentric, we will do well.
Email: editor@iptv-news.com
Tel: +44 203 3773 210
Web: www.iptv-news.com

8

Internet protocol television

IPTV: the truth

When I was asked to write this article, I assumed that people, in general, at least had a vague idea of what
internet protocol television (IPTV) actually is. However, since researching outside of the inner echelon of IPTV
aficionados (both in business and social life), I have ascertained that the majority simply just do not ‘get’ it.
If you are in the dominant percentage
that believes IPTV is ‘internet TV’ (e.g. Joost,
You Tube, et al) and are currently sticking
your hand in the air going, “Me! Me! I know
what it is!”, then read on carefully.

Mind your IPs and TVs
IPTV is not ‘internet TV’. Internet TV
is internet TV and IPTV is internet protocol
television. So, what does this mean in simple
terms? If one looks at the actual words, it
makes more sense. Firstly, ‘internet TV’, by
definition, is ‘content’ which can be watched
online, on computers (or, in certain cases,
on mobile devices and gaming consoles).
Internet protocol television, however, is
television content which is delivered via
internet protocol, but is, or at least can be,
watched on television sets; in addition to
being viewed on other devices.
I recently had a conversation with an
‘internet TV’ channel, during which the client
kept repeating, mantra-like: “We are IPTV!
We are IPTV!” because said client had a
section of the website on which content
could be played. After about twenty minutes
of this, realising that anything I said was
either (a) falling on deaf ears and/or (b)
being drowned out by the “We are IPTV!”
chant (which, incidentally, also offended
me on a grammatical level), I decided to be
magnanimous and make allowances for those
who have not yet been properly educated in
all things IPTV. However, continued reading of
this article will ensure you end up in the higher
echelons of ‘those who do’ and thus be able
to impress/annoy your friends and colleagues

with your IPTV pedantry.
In a recent interview with journalist Philip
Hunter for IPTV News magazine, David
Wray, co-founder and director of UK-based
IPTV specialist, Global Digital Broadcast Ltd
(GDB), explains: “It is important to remember
that IPTV stands for internet protocol
television, i.e. the content may travel over a
broadband line, but it does not stop at the
internet, the computer, or at a mobile device.
People tend to concentrate on the ‘internet’
part, whilst neglecting the ‘television’ aspect.
Global Digital Broadcast has spent years
developing IP set-top boxes which enable
IPTV on television sets and that is true IPTV.”
So, to recap thus far, (true) IPTV is internetdelivered content which is then played on
television sets and, again by definition, the
fact that the content travels via internet
protocol also means that internet functions
(such as web browsing and accessing/using
email accounts) may also be implemented on
television sets.

“D-d-d-d-digital”* - max
delivery to your living
room
The pending digital switchover
is changing the way we are going to be
receiving television content and, of course,
this has given the broadcast industry a
spectrum of marketing toys to play with. The
largest broadcasters are leaning towards
triple-play packages (i.e. bundling services
such as telephone, broadband and digital/
satellite transmission), each promising their
way is the way forward and will deliver the

very best, highest-definition, fast-forwardrewind-pause-play-record-watch-tenchannels-on-split-screen-all-at-once service.
To listen to the hype and marketing
psychobabble which surrounds the IPTV
debate, it would sound as though they
are also offering what the industry likes
to call an IPTV ‘solution’ – a term which
makes didactic PR copywriters want to
start ranting about “homogenous molecular
mixtures of two or more substances.”
However, no matter how loudly certain
broadcasters shout “We are IPTV!” or similar,
it is interesting to note that no-one else,
currently, other than the aforementioned
GDB, seems to have been able to actually
create the homogenous molecular alchemy
which takes the IP and adds it to the TV,
thus creating the all-elusive IPTV.
IP networks already exist in the majority
of countries across the world, thus giving
IPTV its global phenomenon status and this
international aspect is, more correctly, verified
by the fact that internet protocol content may
be transmitted to and from any and every
country which has a broadband connection.
To date, GDB has two existing international
network partnerships, SuncasTV (America)
and Via America (Europe and territories
outside of the USA), which transmit ‘true
IPTV’, i.e. via broadband connection to
set-top box.
The UK IPTV network, under the PlayTV
UK brand, is already rolling out, with an
estimated 100,000 set-top boxes to be
installed, in homes around the country, within
the next 12 months.

Broadband - an “up to”
date debate
Following the broadband speed
“up to” debate at the end of 2007 and its,
somewhat negative, consumer-targeted
‘investigative’ media; statistic and analysis
authority, Point Topic, released the latest DSL
access speeds available to UK households,
along with the suggestion that the contested
“up to” was replaced with “at least”.
The report reads: “At one end of the scale
it is about how the UK will get access to
the very high data rates which most experts
agree we are going to need one day. At the
other end it is about the speeds ordinary
end-users can actually get right now.”
Whilst an informed consumer knows the
actual working download speed depends
on their geographical distance from the
serving exchange, many people became
disillusioned with, and confused by, ISP
claims such as “up to 16 megabits.”

Internet protocol television

According to Point Topic, who set out
to discover who can actually get what and
where, the “at least” figures (as shown) are
actually rather healthy; especially when
one considers that a mere 1Mbps plus is
recommended for IPTV transmission. In
fact, current figures from the Broadband
Stakeholder Group state that 99.6% of the
UK is actually capable of 2 – 10Mbps of
broadband, despite there only being a 52%
take up on the provision (although this figure
is rising).
Furthermore, analyst company Canalys
indicates 39.6 million worldwide subscribers
by the end of 2010. This will be a tenfold
increase, growing from fewer than 4 million
in 2006. These figures provide an undeniably
positive indication to IPTV development as a
majority broadcast system.

Punk protocol - rock the
spine of broadcasting
Jim Deans, co-founder and managing
director of GDB, explains: “IPTV is, quite
simply, the most powerful tool the media has
ever seen. Every human being will adopt
IPTV for what it can do for both business
and for the ordinary person. IPTV is new
age television – adopt video over the net;
build your own TV channel; create your own
schedule; select pages in advance … the
consumer is given the power to watch what

he wants, when he wants. Like punk rocked
the music industry in the 1970s, IPTV is
rocking the spine of broadcasting today.”
The impact of IPTV on media businesses,
such as the entertainment, music, sport and
publishing industries, is obvious. Indeed,
even Warner Brothers has indicated that the
lifespan of DVDs is coming to an end and
Michael O’Hara, general manager of Microsoft
communications, is quoted as saying (of
IPTV): “The transformation of the media and
entertainment industry and the introduction
of a new digital supply chain make software
platforms and solutions essential to the
success of media businesses.”
IPTV is also a highly-lucrative option for
companies and individuals in a multitude of
other trades. In fact, the accessibility and
appeal of IPTV is so comprehensive and
inclusive, that practically any individual and/
or organisation can now broadcast their own
channel, whether it be niche/community and/
or conventional/global.
Perhaps the most notable effects of
IPTV will be seen in the advertising industry
(streamed and/or downloaded content is
exempt from certain regulations) and the
education sector. The education aspect, in
particular, is one of distinguished note. GDB
is now offering its software (middleware)
to schools, colleges, universities and
even charities, across the UK; in order to

facilitate a new media training curriculum and
therefore create a new generation of IPTV
broadcasters.
Jim Deans concludes: “As far as the
education sector is concerned, we intend
to provide media students with the training
they require in order to become part of the
phenomenon that is true IPTV.”

The reality – talented TV
So, there we have it – the truth
about IPTV. Don’t believe me? Then you can
either email me directly for a jolly old dual; or
you can take it from the über-evangelist of
all things tech himself, Microsoft’s Bill Gates:
“We predicted at the beginning of the decade
that this would be the decade that the digital
approach would be taken for granted …
now, there’s a generation that can go even
further as we get more video-on-demand
capability and literally anybody can watch
any show at any time, even the ads can be
targeted to you. We call that IPTV.”
Copyright Jules J. Foreman, February 2008 (jules@gdbtv.com)

IPTV BRINGS THE BENEFITS OF INTERNET
ADVERTISING TO TELEVISION
Television is a powerful medium
that has become a part of our
life. From the Queen’s coronation
in 1953 to Jade Goody’s
dethronement during Big Brother,
television provides common points
of reference that we all share.
Just as much as the programming,
advertising is a part of this shared heritage.
Do you remember the Cadbury’s Smash
Martians? Do you recognize the phrase
Vorsprung durch Technik - even if you don’t
know what it means? There’s an element of
nostalgia in our memories of TV ads, but the
fact that we remember them is testament to
the impact of television.
Research shows that our love affair with the
telly is far from over. We watch an average of
four hours every day - ten minutes more than
in 1997. Yet behind that extra ten minutes
lurks a conundrum.
We watch more television because we
have more channels to choose from. Just
one commercial channel 25 years ago,
compared with up to 400 today. This extra
choice has fragmented television audiences,
making them more difficult for advertisers
to reach. In an age where the advertising
industry’s collective mantra is “return on
investment”, some predictions about the
future of the classic 30 second ad spot have
become rather gloomy. Compared to the
metrics now offered by the Internet, some
believe that television isn’t accountable
enough and that with the arrival of personal
video recorders – if the hype is to be believed
– no one is watching the ads anyway.
Certainly television has some catching up
to do. But the reality is that TV advertising is
far from dead and has a happy future to look
forward to. While the media has focused on
the phenomena of Facebook, MySpace and
YouTube, a quiet revolution has been taking
place: Internet Protocol Television - IPTV for
short - has become a mainstream video
delivery platform.
IPTV does exactly what it says on the
packet: it delivers TV via your telephone line to
the television in your living room using Internet
Protocol – the same technology that drives
the Internet. IPTV has many advantages,
but particularly exciting for advertisers and
broadcasters is the ability for one advertising
spot – also known as an “avail” - to carry
multiple ads from different advertisers to

different audiences at the same time. Those
ads are fully addressable and can be targeted
at viewers on the basis of lifestyle or location,
providing advertisers with the control and
accountability they have come to expect from
the Internet. It enables the broadcaster to
further monetise its ad avail without upsetting
the current structure of the commercial break,
and means that viewers receive ads that are
relevant to them.
This might sound like something for the
future, but it is happening today. A UK-based
company called Packet Vision is rolling out a
targeted advertising service over IPTV in France,
Spain and the US. And for brands wishing to
reach university students, Packet Vision already
offers a fully operational service, helping TV
channels to deliver targeted ads to students in

Major television brands are already engaged
in targeted addressable advertising

university accommodation across the UK.
If IPTV sounds a little too niche, it’s worth
bearing in mind that subscriber numbers in
Europe are at critical mass, with 2 million
households served in France alone, and
major television brands already engaged
in targeted addressable advertising. IP as
a means to deliver video is here to stay.
It is being fitted retrospectively into cable
systems, and it powers web TV and mobile
TV. Those broadcasters and advertisers that
learn how to capitalise upon IPTV now will be
well placed in the near future, when media
begin to converge and the dream of “anytime,
anyplace, anyhow” becomes reality.
Exactly when this will happen remains to
be seen, but what is clear is that television
and the Internet will be the primary engines
of advertising growth in 2008, and that by
bringing the functionality of the Internet to
television IPTV will help improve television’s
share of advertising revenue.

It pays to be
narrow-minded
about broadcast
Advertisers reach television
audiences in more dynamic and
efямБcient ways using IPTV.
To ямБnd out how visit
www.packetvision.co.uk

Wake up to the benefits of IPTV
Distribute content through your existing network
As broadband penetration
continues to rise exponentially so does the
popularity and consumption of IPTV, with
analysts predicting that over 400 million
people worldwide will be taking advantage
of the benefits of television delivered over a
broadband connection by 2010.
Most people believe that IPTV is exclusively
for consumer use, for watching the latest
film, downloading a missed episode of a
favourite soap or catching up on the latest
news. So the mere mention of the word IPTV
in a business context is enough to make any
manager or CEO wince, as they visualise
staff sitting at their desk watching TV all day.
But this not the case, the use of IPTV in
a business environment can be a valuable
asset to any enterprise, in any industry.
By simply using an Ethernet network in
conjunction with a network IPTV solution
such as Exterityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, companies large and small
can stream live TV as well as any multimedia
content to any end point in a building or
across a campus.
Companies such as QVC, SAB Miller
and Reuters are all maximising their existing
IP infrastructure to deliver TV to break-

out areas and foyers, to stream company
training around a building and to distribute
video content to any desktop, plasma
screen or laptop, helping to improve internal
communications, contributing to staff welfare
and improving the overall atmosphere of a
building.
Within the hospitality industry, hotels and
hospitals are reaping the benefits of using
their existing network to stream TV and
multimedia content, which previously required
an extensive and expensive coaxial system.
Hotel visitors can now access a larger variety
of films and TV via the internet and hospital
patients can make their stay more pleasant
by passing the time with bedside TV, all
delivered via an IP connection.
And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just the business world
that can take advantage of network IPTV.
Educational establishments around the
world are waking up to the benefits that
internet-based TV can bring for students and
teachers. Universities and colleges such as
Matthew Boulton College in Birmingham,
Lewisham College in London and Voyager
Academy in Portsmouth are giving students
access to foreign language TV, sharing video

content and making educational resources
available through any IP connection,
regardless of location or time.
â&#x20AC;˘ For more information please visit
www.exterity.co.uk or contact Eric
Beattie, Product Marketing Manager
on +44 1383 828251.

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